DES MOINES - Contrasts couldn't have been more clear between Oelwein veteran Tashina McAllister and Hudson's sophomore 4x200-meter relay combination Friday at the state track and field meet.

Nerves were abundant for McAllister as she defended her Class 3A 400-meter hurdles title in 1 minute 4.62 seconds.

Hudson's combination of Hillary Garvey, Jessi Sorensen, Holly Halstead and Hillary Marquard was full of youthful exuberance, sprinting to their first career state title in the 4x200-meter relay in 1:44.44.

McAllister's second state title didn't become clear until she pulled away on the final turn and headed down the homestretch with challengers Holly Salzbrenner of Mount Vernon and Kelsey Labs of Marion out of her peripheral vision.

"It was pretty intimidating and I wasn't sure how I was going to do against them, but I did good, I feel great and I'm proud of myself," McAllister said, addressing her two opponents who entered the event with faster qualifying times. "Knowing you're a champ and then to defend the title, there's a lot of pressure on you. Sometimes the nerves get to me."

McAllister now turns her focus to the 100 hurdles and 100-meter dash, two events in which she finished among the top seven last season.

Hudson's sophomore phenoms are also just getting started in their quest for state gold. The Pirates combined four consistent legs to hold off a Camanche team that finished ahead of them last season.

Marquard delivered a strong knockout punch as the team's anchor and Hudson won by over a full second.

"We've worked so hard all year," Marquard said. "This feels great."

The tight-knit youngsters' friendship has transferred into a level of familiarity that has resulted in near flawless handoffs. After an uncharacteristic minor delay in the first handoff, the team finished with three 25 second splits.

"We've been running together for a long time, so we had a good connection," Halstead said. "All year we've been running together and it just really paid off at state.

"It meant so much to be able to share this with all my friends. We've came really close and it's awesome."

Added coach Jacinda Canfield, "I was just extremely proud of them. They came out focused and determined to win it, and I honestly think they were just a little bit surprised they weren't pushed into the finish line. … They won by a fairly decent margin and handled it really well."

The Pirates' same combination will attempt to win a 4x100 title Saturday. Hudson enters the race with top time this season.

Elsewhere among area competitors, Turkey Valley's Hannah Lensing followed up yesterday's third place finish in the shot put with second place throw of 124 feet, 6 inches in the discus. Defending Class 2A and Drake Relays discus runner-up Britlyn Sieck of North Fayette qualified for the finals with a throw of 132-8. She was unable to improve on that mark, however, and finished fourth.

Waterloo West's Jadyn Spencer and NU High's 4x200-meter relay team led metro girls' finishers with fifth-place efforts. Spencer unleashed her best throw of 39-3 1/2 on her first shot put attempt. NU High's relay combination of Kendall McDonald, Morgan Granger, Meagan Schneider and Rhyanne Abernathy-Manning finished the Class 1A race in 1:48.37.

The winner of the Class 4A girls' long jump was Jessica Gehrke of Iowa City West. Her father is Darrius Loveless, a former star athlete at Waterloo East.

Among other area girls who recorded top eight efforts Friday were:

Dana Sorenson of Janesville, third and Amy Snyder of Tripoli sixth in the 1A discus.

Tessa Westpfahl of Jesup, third in the 2A 400 hurdles.

Cass Ringena of AGWSR, fourth in the 1A 400 hurdles.

Dike-New Hartford's distance medley (Mallory Bakker, Sara Koch, Nicole Hensley, Jenny Willms),

fifth.

Wapsie Valley's distance medley (Meg Buenzow, Alexa Erhardt, Eryca Hingtgen, Alli Matthias), fifth.

Micah Wedemeier of Tripoli, fifth in the 1A high jump.

Raquel Ristau of Crestwood, sixth in the 3A shot put.

Laura Krug of Union Community, seventh in the 3A 400 hurdles

Decorah's distance medley (Leah Broderick, Kelsey Strand, Kayla Kregel, Moran Lonning), eighth.